1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a medical treatment and supply center having one or more treatment rooms with a number of medical devices and systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The equipping of medical treatment and supply centers entails a number of system-dependent disadvantages that not only make work more difficult but also can produce hazards for the patient in individual cases. Often the correct device is present for the current application, but with an inadequate component. For example, a 7 inch image intensifier is needed for surgery but the x-ray system that is present has a 9 inch image intensifier permanently installed. Due to the multitude of devices utilized in alternation, the treatment and diagnosis rooms are often overfilled and disorderly, so that work with the respectively necessary device is impeded by the devices not required at the moment. Given a device outage in a treatment room, moreover, a replacement often cannot be acquired or cannot be acquired fast enough, since no one in the treatment room knows where a backup device may be and how it could be brought rapidly to a use position, etc.
European Application 0 288 698 discloses a medical treatment and supply center with a device arrangement that includes a locating/diagnosis apparatus and a therapy apparatus. The locating/diagnosis apparatus and the therapy apparatus are arranged spatially separated from one another around a base disposed in the spatial center of the workstation, and provided with a patient support such that the various medical devices can be reached by swivel motions of the patient support around the base. The patient borne on the patient support no longer has to be transferred from one bed to another for various medical measures to be undertaken at the patient due to the arrangement of the medical devices around the patient support table; rather, the patient supported on the patient support table can be pivoted to the desired medical device in a simple way. An ordered workstation is achieved due to the systematic arrangement of the medical devices. Measures for offering backup devices given a device outage or measures for equipping the medical devices with components suitable for the respective application, however, are not undertaken at the workstation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medical treatment and supply center of the type initially described wherein an optimum equipping of the treatment center is possible with fewer devices and supporting apparatus dependent on the currently occurring treatment or diagnosis.
This object is achieved in a medical treatment and supply center in accordance with the invention wherein at least some of the medical devices and systems as well as their assemblies, subsystems and components are arranged in a central magazine and can be transferred therefrom to the desired treatment location by at least one automatic conveyor that can be equipped with these devices and systems as well as their assemblies, subsystems and components. The conveyor means is preferably fashioned such that it can upgrade, dismantle and re-equip the medical devices and systems at the treatment location on the basis of automatic attachment of assemblies, subsystems and components as needed.
All possible devices at every treatment location and in every treatment room are not made available by the inventive embodiment; rather, the selection ensues in an application-specific manner for the respective application. This can ensue especially simply in conjunction with the prior reservation of the treatment and diagnosis rooms. As is known, of course, operating rooms or the like must be reserved an adequately long time in advance for the pending treatments.
In an embodiment of the invention, a central control unit contains the device and system requirements for all important diagnoses and treatments in sub-programs, and the necessary equipment is taken from the magazine and configured automatically via the central acquisition of the respective equipping of the treatment rooms and in conformity with the advance reservation of a room.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the conveyor can be a robot arm controlled by a central control unit for the automatic pick-up and manipulation of all devices and assemblies. The robot arm can be arranged at a freely movable mobile mount, preferably a motor-driven transport carriage that is guided at rails on the floor or suspended from the ceiling.